We have completed our testing of the low band Jarvis Special antenna. Operating as FW7JV, a total of 800 QSO-s were made. Unfortunately, we had to go QRT early as we need to move onto American Samoa and there is a narrow WX window to catch. Many thanks to all who called and those who sent singal reports and analysis of our signals. They were extremely helpful as we were making daily changes to the antenna. (You can get only so far with antenna modelling.) A 45 foot tall 160 meter antenna is difficult under any circumstances. Normally, we stand our antennas in salt-water which gives them an almost perfect ground. When you have a very good ground, you get away with a lot of shortcomings (like low radiation resistance, verr low feed-point impedance, etc.). Unfortunately on Jarvis, because of the powerful surf in the lagoon, we wont be able to stand the antennas in the water. Instead, we will locate them at on the beach at the high-tide line and run wires to aluminum ground posts in the water. This was the configuration we've tested at FW7JV, and after four days of experimenting, we got satisfactory performance on 160, 80 and 40 meters.
- AA7JV